The regulatory history of a parcel of real property consists of past, present and future permits and approvals. Such future permits and approvals may be, e.g., permits and approvals necessitated or contemplated by new, proposed or anticipated legislation, regulations, laws, or other rules. Historically, governmental authorities provide citizens, corporations and other types of entities, non-governmental organizations and other governmental authorities access to the regulatory history of a parcel of real property via paper files.
Certain governmental authorities provide electronic access to portions of the regulatory history of property within the authority's jurisdiction. For example, in Florida, each county's property appraiser provides content to a county-specific database on which certain records connected with properties within the county are made available to the public.
In connection with real estate transactions, financing and development, parties perform regulatory due diligence which requires assembling the complete regulatory history of a property. Regulatory due diligence is typically performed by lawyers, engineers, land planners or other professionals. Liability considerations usually preclude assigning this work to assistants and clerical level personnel. The permits will certainly be reviewed by a professional and will be the subject of a final legal opinion or report. Overlooking a particular Permit or Approval could easily lead to an inaccurate and/or incomplete report and ultimately giving the wrong advice.
Currently, one has to travel to the offices of each of the applicable governmental authorities and in many cases, such as a local government, the various departments thereof such as the planning, zoning, building, public works, environmental resources and other departments. (Other governmental authorities are subdivided into bureaus, sections, districts and the like.) At the reception desk for each, one has to request the file for the particular property and provide the particular means of identifying that particular property used by that governmental authority or department thereof. Sometimes it is necessary to wait for the first available staff member to assist you. Other times you are pointed in the direction of banks of filing cabinets and left to locate the desired file on your own. The governmental authority or department may have a system for organizing the files that is either unfamiliar or altogether a poor system. Files may be disorganized, misplaced or inexplicably missing. Missing files may be checked out to or in use without any tracking or other record by a staff member of the governmental authority or department thereof and must be located. Once the file (or more likely files) is located, it (they) must be reviewed for the desired permits and approvals. Items to be copied which are usually voluminous and often include plans, drawings, or maps must be tabbed in some manner for copying by the first available clerical level employee of the governmental authority or department. Once copied, the governmental authority or department thereof collects for the copies. The process is repeated at the next governmental authority or department. Some governmental authorities or departments accept requests for copies of permits and approvals by letter and will process the request on an hourly rate basis, plus copy charges and shipping. Such governmental authorities have already or are in the process of scanning such paper files to convert them to a digital image that can be accessed electronically on the website of such governmental authority or department thereof by inputting the means of identifying such parcel of real property utilized by that particular governmental authority.